The definitive guide of Symfony 1.2

Chapter 5. Configuring Symfony

To be simple and easy to use, symfony defines a few conventions, which should satisfy the most common requirements of standard applications without need for modification. However, using a set of simple and powerful configuration files, it is possible to customize almost everything about the way the framework and your application interact with each other. With these files, you will also be able to add specific parameters for your applications.

This chapter explains how the configuration system works:

  • The symfony configuration is kept in files written in YAML, although you can always choose another format.
  • Configuration files are at the project, application, and module levels in a project's directory structure.
  • You can define several sets of configuration settings; in symfony, a set of configuration is called an environment.
  • The values defined in the configuration files are available from the PHP code of your application.
  • Additionally, symfony authorizes PHP code in YAML files and other tricks to make the configuration system even more flexible.